Peer Polity Interaction - Essay Example

Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change Peer polity interaction refers to the overall exchanges that take place among the self governing socio-political units. This normally happens within a similar geographical location. The exchanges in the peer polity interaction may include emulation, warfare activities, competition and other forms of imitation that may take place within our environment. On the other hand, socio-political change is based on the concept of change in the socio-landscape and the manner in which individuals participate in the politics of the society (Richard, 705). In the past, peer-polity was both an internal and external affair within the Roma Empire. This mainly related to the Barbarian tribes and, to some extent, other empires. The interactions were mainly given as the cause for the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the first period of happenings that were considered to be the Dark Age. There is an overall perspective in our society that reflects the way of life. Politics, which include the method through which a given group of people are governed, is diverse and varies from one society to the other. Soci-political changes therefore reflect the general changes in the ways of life. Such changes are normally associated with certain aspects of doing things and the historical perspectives that shape our ways of life (Cioffi-Revilla 2005). It is normally crucial for people to revisit some paradigms that underline the collective thinking and action that various leadership styles reflect in our society. During periods of crisis certain methodologies are employed to solve the problems that exist. The need to revisit some of the paradigms that underlie collective action and thinking always occur. A large body of theoretical and empirical research has attempted to confirm that societies strive politically and economically whenever they are able to build strong non-state actors that foster community organizations. Every society has the potential to contribute in various ways to the common good of humanity. According to Burger (681-604), there is the possibility of the existence of the production of negative social capital by individuals who do not cooperate in doing what is commonly good for the entire society. Any attempt to analyze politics in antiquity normally presents various new opportunities for both political and international relations. Governance is done through institutions of leadership that are put up to ensure that services reach the target subjects and efficient leadership is practiced. The term polity is normally used in the strict sense to signify the political science system of governance. Polity in the field of archeology and social anthropology means a far more complex, hierarchical, multi-urban political system. It also reflects a regional and territorial unit that comprises many sites. These various sites may together reveal diverse aspects of past leadership styles. Various modern systems of governance are shaped from the archeological evidence that is from by researchers through various archeological evidences found. The term polity may be used to refer to small region of governance such as chiefdom, a county council or a village or could also be used to refer to a very wide spanning region that may be quite complex to govern such as a kingdom or an empire. Similar to the current international leadership styles, the ancient international systems also consisted of polities among various methods of relationship. However, these traditional methods lacked international systems of governance that helped ensure that world leaders relate and corporate to ensure cohesion in some decisions reached. For instance, unlike the peer-polity interactions of the Greek city states, which existed several hundred years ago, the peer-polity became both internal and external in nature. Certain degree of rivalry was however been experienced. The interactions were often associated with the cause of the fall of the Roman Empire and many huge leadership kingdoms. The analysis of politics in antiquity presents very new opportunities for political science and international relations, particularly the New World. Governance through leadership and institutions, collective action, war and peace, alliance dynamics, regional hegemonies, interstate rivalries, and other universal patterns of world politics existed in Mesoamerica, antedating the modern state system. The findings from various studies indicate various issues that relate to the beginning and fall of the Maya polities in the Mesoamerican political system. This can be proved using various sources of archeology. Maya political dynamics are thus based on the pre-classic origins, various phases of development, system expansions and collapse and very weak political dynasties that do not last long. The Mesoamerican system of Maya polities was one example of a system of sovereign, autonomous, interacting polities in the so called ‘New World’. Other early examples were Monte Alban and Teotihuacain in the New World. In the Old World, Mesopotamia and China also spawned pristine polity systems. The systematic measurement and comparison of Maya polities are important because they advance our understanding of early political dynamics and their comparison with the modern system of world politics. In the last thirty years, archaeology and other allied sciences and humanities, have begun to show a more precise understanding of the long-range evolution of the Maya and other early polity systems. Similar to modern international systems, ancient international systems also consisted of polities and relationships among them, but lacked international institutions and other modern structures. In addition to generating one of the earliest regional political systems in the Western Hemisphere, polities, which developed earlier, has not so much developed as it would be expected. However, at different times in history, human society spawned several pristine areas of world politics such as China, Mesopotamia, South America, Mesoamerica and maybe a few other areas. The fall or termination date is therefore defined by events such as abandonment, social or physical destruction, or the termination of any available historical record or further archaeological evidence of centralized political activity. For instance, the polity termination date for Becain was established at A.D. 850. This was mainly because this was the date when the abandonment was done. On the other hand, the polity termination date for Cuello was estimated to be at A.D. 450. Evidence however indicates that it continued to be occupied by a smaller, politically decentralized population way into the post classic period. These measurement strategies from political science are based on a number of substitutable indicators and are equivalent to similar empirical strategies from archaeology. For these reasons, the probability or structural detection would exponentially decrease with increasing age, the probability of site detection increases by the power of the number of artifacts and structures at a given site, which compensates for the effect of antiquity. There have been evidences of collapse of various polities that were considered unfruitful. The collapse was followed by a minor cycle, which showed a remarkably symmetrical qualitative pattern that led to the second collapse. It is evident that the views of people regarding the aspect of peer polity and its effect on the social and political aspects of the society have been varied. The theoretical views seem to suggest ideas that would otherwise be very complex to implement and which really do not take place. The new computational theory explains the new emergence of social complexity that accounts for the earliest formation of systems of governments during the prehistory and early antiquity. This core iterative process is very canonical in the sense of undergoing variations on the main recurring theme which was targeted at problem solving, adaptation and occasional failure. When a group is successful in managing or overcoming serious situational changes, then a probabilistic transition phase may occur, under a well-specified set of conditions. This may yield a long-term though slow process of emergent political complexity and development. Initially, the canonical theory was implemented through the PoliGen agent-based model that proved to be reliable at the time. Empirically, the theory was testable with the datasets on polities developed by the very long range analysis process of war. This view was started by a number of people. Nevertheless, the view had a great impact on the overall trend of leadership styles. Archeologists have for a quite a long time used peer polity in their studies. The study of the world polity has greatly helped in the efforts of reassessing historical work beyond narrow national perspectives. This has also helped in presenting the new global history through the study of the past events. The importance of the world history has therefore been stressed and people get to understand the past, its importance and how the past can be used in studying the future. Results of such studies have been reflected in the change of leadership styles that reflect the past and the future. Adam, Richard (317) explains that various archeological studies into the peer polity and the overall sociopolitical changes have revealed copious materials that are indicators of certain behaviors which provide evidence that religious ideology is integral to the economy, and to the social relations of production. One of the most persistent and political debate relates to the Maya archeology and its scale and character of the Maya political organization. Indeed, the argument about whether the Maya had state is a point of theoretical importance. This debate can be traced back to the early nineteenth century. In the theoretical framework in 1960s, the argument rages about whether the Maya were chiefdoms or just states. There was also the argument of the fact that Classic Maya polities were abandoned. However, various disputes regarding the size of Maya still rage on. This continues to happen due to the interpretation of various bodies of data such as epigraphic and archeological data (Claudio 559-598). There has been evidence of settlement patterns. The settlement pattern theories therefore attempt to address this issue. Indeed, there is adequate evidence of the existence of a highly patterned distribution of Mayan in the area’s lowland. This section was commonly called the central place model of the Maya settlement. These theories allow predictions of the site location to be made in relation to the areas that had not been fully studied. There is also the possibility of the Maya settlement having been fractal in a variety of ways (Tello 135-160). Geographers and archeologists have shown that many modern and ethnographic settlement patterns are indeed fractural. Certain models were also used in the prediction of site locations in areas that had been surveyed poorly. A number of benefits are generated from this theory of archeology. To begin with, the theory has led to the creation of awareness among people, their environment and the systems of government in place (Adam, Richard, 304). This encourages the ideological and ethical minorities to write and learn more on the non-traditional issues in society. In addition to that, it also leads to various individuals being in a position to actively contribute in various fields of life such as criminology, human behaviors, criminal justice, political science, law and the social sciences. From the theory of archeology in relation to peer polity, individuals get to strive towards maintaining services that would in the end promote global awareness and justice in the world over. People were also in a better position to develop technologies that became very crucial to their way of living. Archeologists have also revealed vast degree of landscape which has shown that the people had the ability and power to plan the reconstructions and influence others to carry out those plans. It was the large landscaping that occurred at the very site which actually supported the hypothesis of asymmetrical power. Even the planning and the way construction of stone-walled galleries was done was a clear suggestion of the fact that a hierarchical system of sorts did exist. This level of complexity indicated that only a select group of people were given the responsibility to perform certain duties considered vital to the entire society (Adam, Richard, 301-322). Existing archeological evidences do not however support the fact that even with the existence of peer polity interaction, warfare never existed. However, evidence reveals that warfare was found only in contemporaneous sites which had not been influenced by various existing cultures. The interesting fact regarding archeology is the way in which some archeological studies were carried out. In conclusion, it is worthwhile to appreciate the fact that some goals of the archeologists, according to the case studies, were achieved. This included the documentation and explanation of the origins and development of the concepts of the socio-political changes in the society and how peer polity interaction took place. Some of the goals also entailed understanding of the human culture, the cultural history, studying the human behavior and ecology as well as the historic and prehistoric societies. It can also be concluded that various aspects of socio-political changes have been influenced by the peer polity that has taken place over the years. Works Cited Adam, R.E.W., and Richard, Jones. Spartial Patterns and Regional Growth among Classic Maya Cities. American Antiquity 46 (2): 1981. 301-322. Burger, Richard L. “Chavin de Huantar and its Sphere of Influence”. In Handbook of South American Archeology, edited by H. Silverman and W. Isbell. Springer, NY. 2008. 681-706. Cioffi-Revilla, Claudio. "A Canonical Theory of Origins and Development of Sociopolitical Complexity in World Historical Systems" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii. 2005. . Claudio, Cioffi Revilla and Todd Landman. Evolution of Maya Polities in the Ancient Mesoamerican System: International Studies Quarterly. Blackwell Publishers. , Vol. 43, No. 4. 1999. 559-598. . Tello, Julio C. Discovery of the Chavín Culture in Peru. American Antiquity Countries South of the Rio Grande: 1943. 135-160. Read More